Edmund Gayton
Edmund Gayton (30 November 1608 - 12 December 1666) was an English poet, physician, and miscellaneous writer.Lee, 94. Life Gayton was born in Little Britain, London, the son of George Gayton. In 1622–1623 he entered Merchant Taylors' School. He was elected to St John's College, Oxford, in 1625, earning a B.A. 30 April 1629 and an M.A. 9 May 1633, and being elected a fellow of his college, also in 1633. He developed some literary faculty, visited the wits in London, and became one of Ben Jonson's adopted sons. In 1636 he was appointed superior beadle in arts and physic in his university, and was in the same year one of the actors in Love's Hospital, or the Hospital for Lovers, a dramatic entertainment provided by Laud when the king and queen were his guests at St. John's College on 30 August 1636). He studied medicine and received a dispensation from the parliamentary delegates for the degree of bachelor of physic, 1 February 1647. In 1648 the parliamentary delegates expelled him from his beadleship. He "lived afterwards in London in a starving condition, and wrote trite things merely to get bread to sustain him and his wife."Wood He composed verses for the pageant of Lord Mayor Dethicke, exhibited 29 Oct. 1655, the first pageant allowed since Cromwell was in power. Unfortunately when the performance took place Gayton was in a debtors' prison. On 22 Sept. 1655 he was taken to the Wood Street counter, and in 1659 was removed to the King's Bench. Later in the latter year he settled in Suffolk. At the Restoration he again became beadle at Oxford, and wrote many broadside verses. He died in his lodgings at Cat Street, Oxford, and was buried in St. Mary's Church. Writing Wood calls Gayton a vain and impertinent author, Hearne calls him vain and trifling. But his chief publication, Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot (fol. London, 1654), a gossipy and anecdotal commentary in four books, in both prose and verse, is spiritedly written. It embodies many humorous anecdotes and quotations from the works of little-known contemporaries, besides references of high historical interest to contemporary society and ‘our late stage.’ Shakespeare is thrice mentioned, pp. 21, 95, 130, but Gayton regarded his "father, Ben," as the greater dramatist.cf. Notes and Queries, 5th series. iii. 161, x. 301 There is prefatory verse by John Speed, Anthony Hodges, and others. In the headlines of the pages the work is called Festivous Notes. An expurgated, corrected, and greatly abbreviated edition in 12mo appeared (with an index) in 1768 as Festivous Notes on the History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. The editor, John Potter, writes of Gayton as "a man of sense, a scholar, and a wit." But Potter's introduction of original illustrations drawn from contemporary events, without any indication that they were not in Gayton's own work, drew down on him a sharp reprimand in the Critical Review, September 1768, p. 203. Potter replied in a new edition in 1771.Lee, 95. Publications Poetry *''Chartæ Scriptæ; or, A new game at cards, call'd Play by the booke''. Oxford, UK: printed by Leonard Lichfield, 1645. *''Wil Bagnol's Ghost: In his perambulation of the prisons of London''. London: W. Wilson, for Thomas Johnson, 1655. *''Hymnus de febribus''. London: Thomas Wareno, 1655. *''The Art of Longevity; or, A diatecticall institutive''. London: privately published, 1659. *''The Glorious and Living Cinque-Ports of our Fortunate Isle''. Oxford, UK: H.H., 1666. Non-fiction *''Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot''. London: William Hunt, 1654. **also published as Festivous Notes on the History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. London: F. Newbery, et al, 1768. *''Charity Triumphant; or, The virgin-shew, exhibited''. London: Nath. Brooks, 1655. *''Upon the Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy''. London: T.R., 1655. *''Wit revived, or, A new and excellent way of divertisement'' (by "Asdryasdust Tossoffacan").. London: privately published 1655; London: T.E., 1674. *''Walk Knaves Walk: A discourse'' (by "Hodge Turberville"). London: 1659. *''The Religion of a Physician, or, Divine meditations upon the grand and lesser festivals''. London: privately published, printed by J.G., 1663. Edited *Henry Martin, Coll. Henry Marten's familiar letters to his lady of delight; also her kind returnes. Oxford, UK: A. Lichfield, for Richard Davis, 1662. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Edmund Gayton, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 24 2016. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, June 24, 2016. Notes External links ;About *Edmund Gayton (1608-1666) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 * Gayton, Edmund {[[Category:1608 births] Category:1666 deaths Category:17th-century poets Category:17th-century English people Category:People from London Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:English physicians